Funding for ICT Start-Ups in Ireland

Today I reviewed 5 new funding institutions (most specialised in Venture capital). With a list of 13 companies so far, I have reasons to believe I may be able to make another list next week and maybe reach 20. My findings so far are that there are many institutions wanting to invest in start-ups in Ireland, not just governmental ones, but banking institutions and event private ones wanting to be part of it. The main issue I am having is to dig all of those throughout the vastness of the internet… Keep reading

As reported by a reliable assessment agency, Estonia holds the current world record in new start-ups per individual, considering that the Estonia has just 1.3 million human population. (Economist, 2013)

For the last 10 years, the Estonian government has been paying additional attention to the ICT sector and making everything possible to attract and encourage more entrepreneurs to start their own business in information systems in Estonia. Government is constantly improving e-services and introducing interesting online services like e-Residency, e-Tax Board, e-Health, e-Banking, e-University and many others (Invest in Estonia). Keep reading

“We have great entrepreneurs and start-up businesses in Ireland – we just don’t have enough of them”. This is the repeated view of the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton. On July 13th 2015, Enterprise Ireland announced a new €500,000 Competitive Start Fund (CSF) aimed at attracting entrepreneurs outside of Ireland to locate their start-up businesses in Ireland (Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, 2015). The CSF coincided with Start-up Gathering 2015 the goal of which is “to make Ireland a global start-up hub by 2020”. Both initiatives are part of a broader strategy outlined in the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs. Keep reading

As I was sifting through some research material the following headline caught my eye.

“NDRC ranked no. 2 University Business Accelerator in the world by UBI Global Index (LEONARD, 2015)”

I was motivated to find out about NDRC – What is it and what does it do? In the same way, I was curious about UBI global. What is the methodology used to rank these university associated/university affiliated incubators and how is NDRC doing so well in the ranking? What makes NDRC a good incubator in the eyes of the perspective of an entrepreneur? Keep reading

Have you ever noticed business managers, leaders and successful entrepreneurs all over the world are mostly white men? Throughout the world, white men can fail in business, pick themselves back up, dust themselves off and start all over again. Whilst they are allowed to fail it appears unlikely that woman and minorities are given the same equal opportunity. To get others involved in the economy perceptions and attitudes need to change. Woman and minorities need to feel that it is ok to fail and not to get it right the first time or every time. The bias is not due to better education, more income or social capital but rather white men are given more chances to take risks. In doing so “they are allowed to fail and succeed in greater numbers than women and minorities”. (Clay & Camfield , 2011). Keep reading

While our scope centres on funding for ICT start-ups in Ireland it is important to place our research into a broader context and consider its relevance. So why does funding and support matter? Simply put, start-ups create job and economic growth. Research from the Central Bank of Ireland reveals that start-up companies in the first five years of existence account for two thirds of all new jobs created in Ireland (Enterprise Ireland, 2014). However, as stated in my previous blog, given the lack of data available, it is impossible to ascertain the number of new jobs created by ICT start-ups alone. Keep reading

Following hours and days of research on funding for ICT start-ups in Ireland I became increasingly frustrated with the information available. While there is an abundance of information from government and non-government sources the information unveiled did not offer much insight into our scope of research. It became apparent that it is extremely difficult to build a profile around this particular segment of the ICT sector in Ireland. The difficulty is that much of the information was grouped either as part the Irish technology industry as a whole or as part of a collective “start-up” group including non-tech business areas of professional services, social and personal services, wholesale, Keep reading

In the previous blog post we described different sources of funding available to the ICT Start-up sector in Ireland. In this post I will explain what you must do before applying for start-up grants in Ireland. At first glance it appears funds are available to everyone and at any time. However, it is not that easy to get a funding, office space or coaching if you have only an idea. It is a commonly known fact that great ideas are worthless without execution.

So you have a million-dollar idea, passion and spirit but where do you start? Keep reading

According to Central Statistics Office, in 2012 the majority of enterprises (90.7%) in the business economy in Ireland are microenterprises (Office., 2012). Given the size and importance of microenterprises, Microfinance Ireland was formed as part of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs in October 2012. The state backed loan fund provides loans of €2,000 up to €25,000 to businesses employing ten people or less. In the period from its inception to 30th June 2015, Microfinance Ireland has provided €9.303M value of Keep reading